When his 14-year-old son, Simon, told him he believed he was a girl, Gareth Amaya Price said he knew something wasn’t right.

"I thought from the first moment that the idea Simon was really a girl was absurd," Gareth told Fox News Digital. "I had seen my son grow up. He was unusual, sure, but the idea that, because he was unusual, or didn’t like all the same things some other boys liked, meant he wasn’t a boy at all struck me as incredibly regressive."

"As I learned more about the realities of gender identity and its impact on children, I went from skepticism to concern to resolve," he added.

He shares his story of resisting pressure from the medical community to transition his son in the new Independent Women’s Features documentary, "Identity Crisis: Defying the Transgender Lobby to Save His Son," released Wednesday.

Gareth Amaya Price shares his story as a father who resisted his son Simon's gender transition, in a new documentary by Independent Women's Features, the grassroots storytelling and original journalism arm of Independent Women. (Simon Amaya Price/IW Features)

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In 2018, Simon, who is bisexual, said he was struggling with anxiety, depression and bullying over his sexuality at school. Desperate for belonging, he began exploring transgenderism online after learning about it in his middle school health class and through his school’s Gay-Straight Alliance club. By his freshman year in high school, he was convinced he was a girl.

When he told his therapist at Boston Children’s Hospital, he said she immediately affirmed his belief and referred him to the hospital’s gender clinic. But Gareth was not supportive of the idea.

"He said something like, ‘No way in hell are you a girl,’" Simon recalled. "So, very unaffirming. I hated him for that, legitimately, at the time."

Gareth said he began researching and speaking to other parents about gender ideology. He learned about the rise in cases, which some attribute to "rapid onset gender dysphoria," a sudden identification as transgender during adolescence, and became increasingly concerned.

The Amaya Price family says Simon's transgender identity was affirmed by his school, college and by the medical community. (Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images)

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"This was a completely new phenomenon," Gareth said in the film. "One of the most important things I learned during this research is that the majority of children who say this while they’re children, if you don’t interfere with them, they grow out of it."

Fearing medicalization could cause lasting harm, Gareth resisted allowing Simon to go to the gender clinic. He said he largely kept his reservations to himself, worried that refusing to "affirm" could draw the attention of state authorities.

"It was hard for me to stand my ground. I could not express my beliefs to his doctors or even to mine, for fear that they might make a case of it and take my child away. Simon was often angry at me, and that was hard because I loved him and I raised him," he told Fox News Digital.

"I would tell myself that I didn’t need him to love me right at that moment, I needed him to be safe and healthy in the long run," he continued. "I just could not compromise with the insanity that is gender ideology; if I had to carry the burden of his long-term safety and health by myself, it was my duty as a loving parent to do so."

At one point, he recalled how Simon’s pediatrician confronted him over his opposition to Simon going to the gender clinic, asking, "Would you rather have a live daughter or a dead son?"

Gareth Amaya Price said he was pressured by his son's doctor to take him to the gender clinic or he would commit suicide. (Carl Court/Getty Images)

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"To have the doctor say to me to my face in front of my child that if I don’t do what he says, my son is going to kill himself is the most blatant example of emotional blackmail I can imagine," Gareth said in the documentary.

He told Fox News Digital that, with one exception, none of the professionals they encountered seemed to have Simon’s best interests in mind. 

"They look for an opportunity to drive a wedge between the child and the parents to facilitate that harm," he said.

Simon eventually socially transitioned during his freshman year in college, but after being rejected by his peers over a political disagreement, he said he began to question the ideology he once embraced.

"Thanks to his dad, Gareth Amaya Price, Simon did not undergo permanent, life-altering procedures like many others who self-identified as transgender," Independent Women says of its newly released documentary. (Simon Amaya Price)

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Over time, and through many conversations, Simon and Gareth’s relationship healed, and Simon now considers himself a "desister" — someone who walks away from a transgender identity before any medical intervention.

Seven years later, he’s grateful for his dad’s firm stance.

"I never went to the gender clinic specifically because my dad never let me and I hated him for it," he said in the film. "But I realized that I’m very lucky that he did not let me go. I think that, yeah, if I had a different dad, if my dad was neutral or affirming, I would not be here today in the capacity that I am."

Gareth told Fox News Digital that he hopes sharing his story will encourage other parents to not bow to pressure.

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"Just say no," he said. "You are not obligated to doctors, to therapists, or to schools. You are obligated to the man your son will become someday, or the woman your daughter will become someday."

Boston Children’s Hospital did not return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The hospital's overview section of its Center for Gender Health states, "The Center for Gender Health delivers coordinated care for transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals and their families. We emphasize exploration and expression of gender to promote positive self-image, and we offer mental health and medical services for qualifying patients. We provide individualized support and resources every step of the way."